SUCCOUR BY AIR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19475, 9 May 1925, Page 10

SUCCOUR BY AIR.

FOR OUTBACK SETTLERS.

DOCTORS’ FEATS.

(From Ode Own Correspondent.! SYDNEY, April 30. One of the greatest hardships suffered by Australian outback pioneers' in the past has been the difficulty of securing urgent medical or suigical attention in cases of sudden illnesses or accidents. In some parts of the commonwealth, particularly in Queensland, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory, isolated settlers are as much as 250 miles awav from the nearest doctor. Half of that distance might be from the nearest railway station. The automobile and the telephone alleviated the lot of the sick and maimed of the cutback, but a still greater force to overcome the difficulty of distance is the aeroplane, which already'has been frequently used by doctors in cases where hours or minutes have spelt life or death for a patient. A recent instance of this comes from Queensland. Flying in an aeroplane, thousands of feet above tortuous, almost impassable roads in North Queensland, Dr fehepherdson, health officer to the Cloncurry Shire Council.- was enabled to reach the stricken residents of the Duchess and Mount Isa mining fields and inoculate them against an epidemic of typhoid fever. The journey took only a few hours, whereas by road it would have taken two days, a period which would have been prohibitive, as both the doctor and his hospital matron, who accompanied him, could not spare that time to be away from their hospital patients. So' successful was the experiment that,two subsequent trips were made and what well might have been a calamity to the unfortunate settlers was averted. This striking example of the part the aeroplane is playing in opening up outback. Australia is by no means unique. Every month the records of the company running the aerial service in Queensland contain instances ot how the progress of civil aviation is aiding the settlor in distress. A comprehensve proposal has been put forward by the Australian Inland Mission in Western Australia to nlace, gs they call it. a “mantle of safety r ’ over the continent. Briefly, their plan is to call to the aid of bush doctors and nurses, in the most efficient possible manner, modern Inventions such as the aeroplane and wireless. ' The plans have been somewhat thoroughly prepared by the Superintendent of the mission, and although it may be many, many years before they are put into operation, there are undoubted possibilities in the co-operation of the aeroplane pilot and the doctor.